Need to rise Alk!

[Flippers4pups]

I use baking soda for my alk dosing and also use kalkwasser in my ATO.

Here's Randy's article on his improved recipes: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

I use his " recipe part 2" for alkalinity. 1 1/8 cups of baking soda per one gallon of RO/DI water.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Here's the calculator most use to dose: (including me! Lol)

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[WWIII]

At what concentration or how many grams do I have to make the solution?

The brs magnesium mix is 5 cups of magnesium chloride plus 3 cups magnesium sulfate in 1 gallon of rodi.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Well I suppose the next question is. How much do I need to dose daily to bring it up?

 

[WWIII]

I would get magnesium to around 1300, then raise alkalinity to where you want it slowly over a few days. Then check where calcium is and add if needed. Then dose the aquaforest solutions by their directions if that's the brand you have/want to use. Test for a while and see how your tank does once you get the numbers where you want them

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

This is the product I'm using

http://aquaforest.eu/en/product/magnesium/

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The tank is 220 gallons. I always had trouble to keep magnesium at the right level. Something it's absorbing it and fast.... But don't know what it is.

Nope. There is never, ever any fast consumption of magnesium. 1-2 ppm per day is about the limit.

BUT, many people have magnesium testing errors.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Red Sea kit is apparently prone to error.

 

[WWIII]

This is the product I'm using

http://aquaforest.eu/en/product/magnesium/

If I had to guess, this mixture is not strong enough to make a significant impact in raising your magnesium. It may be just to maintain magmesium? I read the instructions on the link you posted, but couldn't make sense out od them? It seems like the mix is pretty weak, but not sure what advice to give from here.

Edit - if you want to order the brs 2 part magmesium mix, or make your own, we could figure out a dose for you to get up to around 1300. I'm just not sure on the aquaforest product.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Which one do you use?

 

[WWIII]

Which one do you use?

I used brs mix when I needed to raise my magnesium substantially. Now I use Randy's new "high ph" diy 2 part mix. So I make my own. If you get the brs pre-mixed magnesium solution you can correct your current magnesium level and then use the aquaforest or whatever to maintain that level. I haven't dosed "pure" magnesium in over a year in my 200 gallon tank. There is a little magnesium in the diy 2 part mix, and my salt for whaterchanges has high magnesium levels.

Once you correct it, magnesium will deplete very slowly if at all depending on what you dose and what salt you use for waterchanges. Getting it to the "correct " level is the key, then just occasionally monitor.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

There’s no real order.
You don’t want to put the alkalinity in too soon before or after each other though. If they mix they kinda become glue.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

What product from aquaforest would you recommend? Since that's the brand u can find in my home country (Costa Rica)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What product from aquaforest would you recommend? Since that's the brand u can find in my home country (Costa Rica)

For what purpose? Magnesium? As I mentioned, I think there's a good chance that value is test error.

What salt mix are you using?

 

[d5332]

To the OP:
the only source that can tell you what to dose and how much of it is the tank in your house.

If you want to simplify your life, get your hands on a Jebao 4 head dosing pump.
Figure out how to properly use/mix baking soda and record your water to baking soda ratio for future use.
Better yet, buy two part from BRS or DFS and follow their instructions.
Make 1 gallon batches of cal, alk, mag.
Connect your new cheap but working dosing pump.
Start dosing slowly.
Every 3/5 days test the water until you get a reading of say 7.5 to 8.5 for alk.
do not adjust the dosing pump any more, keep testing for a few more weeks.
It readying is stable at 7.5 to 9, now you know how much your tank is consuming, repeat for other parameters.
If you add more corals, you will have to monitor, test and adjust dosing pump accordingly.

If you want to do this all manually and with expensive products you may want to consider it may become to much of chore, too expensive, too unstable, etc....
if you want to explore do it yourself stuff, get familiar with it before you start dumping it in. i.e. baking soda, ice melt, etc....

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

For what purpose? Magnesium? As I mentioned, I think there's a good chance that value is test error.

What salt mix are you using?

I'm using red Sea coral pro salt. What test should I use then?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm using red Sea coral pro salt. What test should I use then?

Try the kit on some new salt water. Coral Pro ought to be pretty high in magnesium.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Try the kit on some new salt water. Coral Pro ought to be pretty high in magnesium.

I did that and the reading is correct. So the problem seems to be the product I'm using.

I'm raising the Alk using a baking soda solution little by little. It should be up and stable in a week.

But the main question remains... Which product should I use to raise mag? I would prefer aquaforest because it's what I can find here... Otherwise I have to order from the US directly.

Also while using the calculator I was wondering it does tell you how much of a product to use, but it doesn't tell you how much you have to dose daily to make the change, or am I missing something here?

Thanks everybody for the help. I really appreciate it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I did that and the reading is correct. So the problem seems to be the product I'm using.
.

What value did you get? Red Sea oral Pro at 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264) should have about 1474 ppm magnesium.

It would take a lot of calcium and alk dosing (and no magnesium) to drop the magnesium to 1200 ppm. Thousands of ppm of calcium over time.

Did that happen?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also while using the calculator I was wondering it does tell you how much of a product to use, but it doesn't tell you how much you have to dose daily to make the change, or am I missing something here?

Thanks everybody for the help. I really appreciate it.

You have to decide for yourself how much to boost it each day. 25 ppm seems reasonable to me.

I'd use a DIY (say, from BRS), but I'm still not convinced yours is low.